Dispatching UAVs for Wildfire Surveillance

ABSTRACT

A dispatch system includes an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) interface for interfacing with one or more UAVs for wildfire detection. The UAV interface transmits an instruction for a UAV to navigate to a location of a potential wildfire, and receives data captured by at least one sensor of the UAV. The dispatch system further includes a fire detection engine to process the received data to identify the presence of a wildfire, and a web server to provide a user interface that includes an alert regarding the wildfire. The alert may include the location of the wildfire.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of and priority to U.S. ProvisionalApplication No. 62/988,707, filed Mar. 12, 2020, the disclosure of whichis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety for allpurposes.

BACKGROUND

Recent history has highlighted critical gaps in wildfire surveillancecapabilities. Some available systems for monitoring and detectingwildfires rely on fixed equipment, such as manned lookout stations orcamera systems. Such systems only cover regions in which they areimplemented, and manned lookout stations can be difficult to staff,particularly during wildfires. Manned air patrols can fly over at-riskregions, with the pilot or other onboard observers scanning the regionsfor wildfires. However, resource constraints make it difficult to useair patrols for routine wildfire monitoring, especially as wildfires areoccurring across a broader range of locations and the number of wildfireincidents is increasing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a UAV for wildfire detection according tosome embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 shows a system diagram illustrating a fire response system and awildfire detected by the fire response system according to someembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the dispatch system according to someembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 shows an example method for detecting and responding to awildfire according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 shows an example method for dispatching a UAV configured forwildfire surveillance, according to some embodiments of the presentdisclosure; and

FIG. 6 shows an example method for detecting a new wildfire according tosome embodiments of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS OF THE DISCLOSURE

Overview

The systems, methods and devices of this disclosure each have severalinnovative aspects, no single one of which is solely responsible for allof the desirable attributes disclosed herein. Details of one or moreimplementations of the subject matter described in this specificationare set forth in the description below and the accompanying drawings.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can be quickly deployed to areas at riskof wildfire to detect wildfires and gather information about thewildfires. In some embodiments, a dispatch system manages a UAV or afleet of UAVs that have on-board sensors for collecting data that can beused to detect wildfires. For example, wildfire detection UAVs mayinclude cameras for detecting spectral line emissions, visible lightcameras, infrared cameras, sensors for detecting materials associatedwith wildfires or wildfire smoke, sensors for detecting environmentalconditions (e.g., temperature, humidity, air pressure, wind direction,and wind speed), or other types of sensors or combination of sensors.The dispatch system dispatches a UAV to a specific geographic location,such as a latitude/longitude or a set of latitude/longitudes along aflightpath. The dispatch system receives communications from the UAVdescribing data captured by the cameras and/or other sensors. Thedispatch system instructs the UAV to return to its departure point oranother specified location.

In some embodiments, the UAVs have camera systems configured to detectpotassium emission events. Potassium occurs naturally in vegetation.Burning vegetation emits the spectral line signature of the potassiumatom, so potassium emissions can be used as a signature to distinguishwildfires from other types of fires. Other imaging techniques, such asvisible light camera systems or infrared thermal imaging systems, do notspecifically detect wildfires, but also detect structure fires or otherfires. Wildfires typically involve a different type of emergencyresponse from other types of fires, and the potassium detection camerais specifically attuned to accurately detecting wildfires.

The dispatch system can deploy a UAV to a region at risk of wildfire.For example, an agency that provides fire response may receive a callnotifying the agency of a potential wildfire. The caller may provide alocation of the potential wildfire, or supplemental data associated withthe caller may provide a location of the caller. As another example, afire agency may determine that a region is at a high risk of wildfiredue to dry conditions. The UAV maneuvers along a flight path to capturesensor data, such as potassium emission images, of the region at risk ofwildfire. The captured data is analyzed to determine if a wildfire ispresent within the region. In response to detecting a wildfire, thedispatch system may determine a response plan based on data describingthe wildfire, e.g., the location and current spread of the wildfire, andavailable resources for fighting the wildfire. The dispatch system mayoutput the response plan to a dispatcher, who may dispatch resources tothe wildfire according to the response plan. In other embodiments, thefire surveillance system automatically instructs the dispatching ofresources to the wildfire, e.g., by transmitting instructions to a firestation.

Unlike fixed surveillance systems, UAVs can be deployed as needed andare not confined to a particular region. For example, UAVs may be stagedin an area that is at a heightened risk of wildfires due to recentweather, and UAVs may be deployed throughout that area on an as-neededbasis (e.g., in response to a report of a wildfire) or deployed forroutine monitoring. Unlike prior manned surveillance systems, such aslookout towers or manned air patrols, UAVs can be quickly andautomatically deployed, without relying on a human pilot or lookout. Theunmanned nature also allows UAVs to get closer to fires or at-risk areasthan manned solutions without endangering human lives. In addition, UAVsmay be less expensive to build, maintain, and staff than manned vehiclesor viewing stations, allowing agencies to acquire and use a greaternumber of UAVs and achieve more robust wildfire detection andmonitoring.

In one aspect, a dispatch system includes a UAV interface, a firedetection engine, and a web server. The UAV interface transmits, to aUAV, an instruction to navigate to a location of a potential wildfire,and receives, from the UAV, data captured by at least one sensor of theUAV. The fire detection engine processes the data to identify thepresence of a wildfire. The web server provides a user interface thatincludes an alert regarding the wildfire, the alert including a locationof the wildfire.

In another aspect, a method for detecting wildfires includes dispatchinga UAV along a flight path, the UAV including a camera configured tocapture images of emissions characteristic of wildfires; receiving, fromthe UAV, data describing an emission event and an associated location ofthe emission event; comparing the location of the emission event tolocations of known wildfires; and in response to determining that thelocation of the emission event does not correspond to a location of aknown wildfire, providing an alert that includes the location of theemission event

In still another aspect, a method for detecting wildfires includesreceiving data describing a phone call reporting a potential wildfire,the data including a caller location; assigning, based on the callerlocation, a flight path to a UAV that has a camera configured to captureimages of spectral line emissions characteristic of wildfires; anddetermining, based on images of spectral line emissions captured by theUAV and location data associated with the images, that a particularlocation imaged by the camera has an active wildfire.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the presentdisclosure, in particular aspects of dispatching UAVs for wildfiresurveillance, described herein, may be embodied in various manners—e.g.as a method, a system, a computer program product, or acomputer-readable storage medium. Accordingly, aspects of the presentdisclosure may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, anentirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software,micro-code, circuit designs, etc.) or an embodiment combining softwareand hardware aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a“circuit,” “module” or “system.” Functions described in this disclosuremay be implemented as an algorithm executed by one or more hardwareprocessing units, e.g. one or more microprocessors, of one or morecomputers. In various embodiments, different steps and portions of thesteps of each of the methods described herein may be performed bydifferent processing units. Furthermore, aspects of the presentdisclosure may take the form of a computer program product embodied inone or more computer-readable medium(s), preferably non-transitory,having computer-readable program code embodied, e.g., stored, thereon.In various embodiments, such a computer program may, for example, bedownloaded (updated) to the existing devices and systems or be storedupon manufacturing of these devices and systems.

In the following detailed description, various aspects of theillustrative implementations may be described using terms commonlyemployed by those skilled in the art to convey the substance of theirwork to others skilled in the art. For example, the term “connected”means a direct electrical or magnetic connection between the things thatare connected, without any intermediary devices, while the term“coupled” means either a direct electrical or magnetic connectionbetween the things that are connected, or an indirect connection throughone or more passive or active intermediary devices. The term “circuit”means one or more passive and/or active components that are arranged tocooperate with one another to provide a desired function. The terms“substantially,” “close,” “approximately,” “near,” and “about,”generally refer to being within +/−20%, preferably within +/−10%, of atarget value based on the context of a particular value as describedherein or as known in the art. Similarly, terms indicating orientationof various elements, e.g., “coplanar,” “perpendicular,” “orthogonal,”“parallel,” or any other angle between the elements, generally refer tobeing within +/−5-20% of a target value based on the context of aparticular value as described herein or as known in the art.

The terms such as “over,” “under,” “between,” and “on” as used hereinrefer to a relative position of one material layer or component withrespect to other layers or components. For example, one layer disposedover or under another layer may be directly in contact with the otherlayer or may have one or more intervening layers. Moreover, one layerdisposed between two layers may be directly in contact with one or bothof the two layers or may have one or more intervening layers. Incontrast, a first layer described to be “on” a second layer refers to alayer that is in direct contact with that second layer. Similarly,unless explicitly stated otherwise, one feature disposed between twofeatures may be in direct contact with the adjacent features or may haveone or more intervening layers.

For the purposes of the present disclosure, the phrase “A and/or B”means (A), (B), or (A and B). For the purposes of the presentdisclosure, the phrase “A, B, and/or C” means (A), (B), (C), (A and B),(A and C), (B and C), or (A, B, and C). The term “between,” when usedwith reference to measurement ranges, is inclusive of the ends of themeasurement ranges. As used herein, the notation “A/B/C” means (A), (B),and/or (C).

The description uses the phrases “in an embodiment” or “in embodiments,”which may each refer to one or more of the same or differentembodiments. Furthermore, the terms “comprising,” “including,” “having,”and the like, as used with respect to embodiments of the presentdisclosure, are synonymous. The disclosure may use perspective-baseddescriptions such as “above,” “below,” “top,” “bottom,” and “side”; suchdescriptions are used to facilitate the discussion and are not intendedto restrict the application of disclosed embodiments. Unless otherwisespecified, the use of the ordinal adjectives “first,” “second,” and“third,” etc., to describe a common object, merely indicate thatdifferent instances of like objects are being referred to, and are notintended to imply that the objects so described must be in a givensequence, either temporally, spatially, in ranking or in any othermanner.

In the following detailed description, reference is made to theaccompanying drawings that form a part hereof, showing, by way ofillustration, some of the embodiments that may be practiced. In thedrawings, same reference numerals refer to the same or analogouselements/materials so that, unless stated otherwise, explanations of anelement/material with a given reference numeral provided in context ofone of the drawings are applicable to other drawings whereelements/materials with the same reference numerals may be illustrated.For convenience, if a collection of drawings designated with differentletters are present, e.g., FIGS. 2A-2C, such a collection may bereferred to herein without the letters, e.g., as “FIG. 2.” Theaccompanying drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale. Moreover, itwill be understood that certain embodiments can include more elementsthan illustrated in a drawing, certain embodiments can include a subsetof the elements illustrated in a drawing, and certain embodiments canincorporate any suitable combination of features from two or moredrawings.

Various operations may be described as multiple discrete actions oroperations in turn in a manner that is most helpful in understanding theclaimed subject matter. However, the order of description should not beconstrued as to imply that these operations are necessarily orderdependent. In particular, these operations may not be performed in theorder of presentation. Operations described may be performed in adifferent order from the described embodiment. Various additionaloperations may be performed, and/or described operations may be omittedin additional embodiments.

In some examples provided herein, interaction may be described in termsof two, three, four, or more electrical components. However, this hasbeen done for purposes of clarity and example only. It should beappreciated that the devices and systems described herein can beconsolidated in any suitable manner. Along similar design alternatives,any of the illustrated components, modules, and elements of theaccompanying drawings may be combined in various possibleconfigurations, all of which are clearly within the broad scope of thepresent disclosure. In certain cases, it may be easier to describe oneor more of the functionalities of a given set of flows by onlyreferencing a limited number of electrical elements.

The following detailed description presents various descriptions ofspecific certain embodiments. However, is to be understood that otherembodiments may be utilized, and structural or logical changes may bemade without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Ingeneral, the innovations described herein can be embodied in a multitudeof different ways, for example, as defined and covered by the claimsand/or select examples, and the following detailed description is not tobe taken in a limiting sense.

Example UAV

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a UAV 100 according to some embodimentsof the present disclosure. The UAV 100 includes a propulsion system 110,a location sensor 120, a navigation system 130, a camera system 140, aprocessor 150, environmental sensors 160, and a communications interface170. In alternative configurations, different and/or additionalcomponents may be included in the UAV 100. Additionally, functionalitydescribed in conjunction with one or more of the components shown inFIG. 1 may be distributed among the components in a different mannerthan described in conjunction with FIG. 1 in some embodiments.

The propulsion system 110 maneuvers the UAV 100 along a flight path. Thepropulsion system 110 may include a power supply (e.g., a battery orengine), propellers and/or wings, navigation software, and othercomponents for physically maneuvering the UAV 100.

The location sensor 120 determines a current location of the UAV 100.The location may be used by the navigation system 130 to assist innavigation, and by the processor 150 to identify the location of adetected wildfire, as described below. In some embodiments, the locationsensor 120 determines a latitude and longitude. In some embodiments, thelocation sensor 120 further determines an altitude. The location sensor120 may include a GPS receiver and processor for determining locationfrom GPS signals. The location sensor 120 may include other types ofsensors that can be used for determining location in combination with orinstead of a GPS receiver, such as accelerometers, altimeters, cellsignal receivers, etc.

The navigation system 130 instructs the propulsion system 110 tomaneuver the UAV 100 along a flight path to a region of a potentialwildfire, e.g., a region with a high wildfire risk, or a region where awildfire was reported. The navigation system 130 include hardware andsoftware for translating a flight path into instructions for thepropulsion system 110. The propulsion system 110 receives a currentlocation from the location sensor 120 and determines the flight pathaccording to the current location of the UAV 100.

The navigation system 130 receives instructions to navigate to a regionat risk of wildfire. For example, a dispatch system provides a specificlatitude and longitude to the navigation system 130, and the navigationsystem 130 determines a flight path from the UAV's current location tothe specified latitude and longitude. In other embodiments, the dispatchsystem provides a set of locations, e.g., a set of multiplelatitude/longitude combinations for the UAV 100 to navigate to, or aspecific point and a radius around that point for the UAV 100 toobserve. The navigation system 130 may continually or periodicallyupdate the flight path according to the current location. In someembodiments, the UAV 100 is controlled by a remote pilot; in suchembodiments, the UAV may or may not include the navigation system 130.

The camera system 140 captures images of an environment around the UAV100. The camera system 140 may include one or more cameras to captureimages in different directions around the UAV 100. The camera system 140may include one or more different types of cameras or camera subsystemsfor capturing light at particular wavelengths or set of wavelengths, orother particular types of images. For example, the camera system 140 mayinclude one or more cameras for capturing light in the visible spectrum,e.g., light having a wavelength between around 400 nanometers and 750nanometers, and one or more infrared cameras capturing infraredradiation, e.g., radiation having a wavelength between around 1000nanometers and around 14000 nanometers, or a subset of this range.

In some embodiments, the camera system 140 includes one or more camerasthat capture a particular spectral line or set of spectral lines thatcan be used to identify wildfires. For example, the camera system 140includes a camera for capturing potassium emission images. As notedabove, burning vegetation has a higher potassium concentration thanother types of files, so the spectral line signature of the potassiumatom can be used to distinguish wildfires from other types of fires.Potassium has several spectral lines in the near-infrared range, near769.9 nm and 766.5 nm, that are particularly useful for identifyingwildfires. In one embodiment, a camera for capturing potassium emissionimages captures radiation in a range that includes one or both of thesespectral lines.

To identify wildfires using spectral line images, the camera system 140includes two optical channels: a spectral line detection channel with anarrow band pass filter that selects captured light at one of thespectral lines, and a reference channel with a broader band pass filterthat excludes the spectral line emission wavelength. The spectral linedetection channel outputs a spectral line emission image, and thereference channel outputs a reference image. The narrow band pass filterof the spectral line detection channel may be centered at a wavelengthassociated with potassium emission, and have a bandwidth between, forexample, 0.1 nm and 5 nm. For example, a potassium detection channel iscentered at around 770 nm (e.g., 769.9±0.5 nm), or a potassium detectionchannel is centered at 766.5 nm (e.g., 766.5 nm±0.5 nm). The referencechannel selects a band that does not include the spectral lines; forexample, if the band pass filter selects light having a wavelength of769.9±0.5 nm, the reference channel may select light having a referencechannel of 750 nm±10 nm (i.e., 740 to 760 nm). In some embodiments, thespectral line detection channel selects multiple spectral lines, e.g., aband centered around 770 nm and a band centered around 766.5 cm. In someembodiments, the camera may include three or more optical channels tocapture multiple spectral bands, e.g., two potassium detection channelsand the reference channel. In other embodiments, wavelengths ofdifferent potassium spectral lines, or spectral lines of different atomsor molecules associated with wildfires, may be used. In someembodiments, the camera system 140 may capture spectral line imagesassociated with multiple elements or molecules useful for wildfiredetection.

The processor 150 receives images captured by the camera system 140 andprocesses the captured images. In particular, the processor 150 analyzesthe captured images to determine if a wildfire is present in the imagedregion. For the spectral line emission camera described above, theprocessor 150 compares the images simultaneously captured by thespectral line detection channel and the reference channel, e.g., pixelby pixel. Pixels that are bright in the spectral line image but notbright in the reference image indicate an emission event at the locationof those pixels; the emission event may indicate a wildfire is presentat that location. For example, the processor 150 compares the spectralline image to the reference image and identify any portion of thespectral line image having at least a threshold relative brightness tothe same portion in the reference image. In other embodiments, thecaptured images are transmitted to an external processor (e.g., acloud-based processing system) which analyzes the image to determine ifthere is a wildfire in the imaged area.

The processor 150, or alternate control circuitry, may communicate withand control other systems of the UAV 100. For example, the processor 150may receive and process data from the environmental sensors 160,described below. The processor 150 may analyze data from the camerasystem 140 and/or environmental sensors 160 and generate summary datafor sending to a remote system, such as a control center or UAV operatordevice. If the processor 150 detects an emission event in an image, theprocessor 150 may retrieve the current location of the UAV 100 from thelocation sensor 120 (e.g., a GPS device) and associate the detectedemission event with the location. The processor 150 may also sendcontrol signals to other systems, such as instructions to the camerasystem 140 to obtain images, or instructions to the environmentalsensors 160 to obtain environmental data.

Environmental sensors 160 may be included on the UAV 100 to captureadditional data about the environment of the UAV 100. In particular, theenvironmental sensors 160 may provide additional data that can be usedto determine the presence of wildfires, determine current wildfireconditions, predict the spread of wildfires, and/or assist crews inresponding to the wildfires. The environmental sensors 160 may include,for example, sensors for detecting temperature, humidity, air pressure,wind direction, and wind speed. In some embodiments, the environmentalsensors 160 may include sensors for detecting smoke or particularchemicals in the air that are indicative of fires or wildfires.

The communications interface 170 is configured to send and receive data.For example, the UAV 100 receives navigation instructions from a commandcenter via the communications interface 170, which passes theinstructions to the propulsion system 110 and/or processor 150. Thecommunications interface 170 also transmits data from the UAV 100 toother systems. For example, the communications interface 170 maytransmit images from the camera system 140 and data from theenvironmental sensors 160 to the command center or other externalsystem, e.g., when the processor 150 detects an emission event. Thecommunications interface 170 may transmit additional context informationwith captured data, such as the location of the UAV 100 when data wascaptured and the time at which the data was captured.

The communications interface 170 may include, for example, a WiFiinterface, a Bluetooth interface, a cellular interface, a satellitecommunications interface, and/or other types of wireless communicationsinterfaces. The communications interface 170 may support multiple typesof communication, and select the communication mechanism based onavailable signals. For example, the communications interface 170 maycommunicate over a cellular network when WiFi is not available, orcommunicate via radio signals when a remote operator is within range ofthe UAV 100.

The communications interface 170 may be offline for periods of time. Forexample, when the UAV 100 is deployed, the UAV 100 may communicate witha dispatch system or other command center via a cellular network. Whenthe UAV 100 is out of range of cell towers in the network, a memory onthe UAV 100 (not shown in FIG. 1) temporarily stores data fortransmission to the dispatch system. When the UAV 100 reconnects to thecellular network, the communications interface 170 transmits the storeddata to the dispatch system.

The UAV 100 enables early detection of wildfires. For example, the UAV100, or multiple UAVs 100, can be deployed in an area at an elevatedrisk of wildfires, e.g., due to hot and dry conditions. The UAV 100distinguishes wildfires from other types of fires by using linespectroscopy to identify a chemical signature of wildfires, such aspotassium. Using line spectroscopy to find a chemical signature specificto wildfires or smoldering vegetation reduces false alarms from othertypes of fires. Using line spectroscopy as opposed to other methods,such as visual inspection, also improves the ability of the UAV 100 towork in conditions of limited visibility, including at nighttime.

Example Fire Response System

The UAV 100 described above can be utilized in a fire response system.In some embodiments, a fire response system is one aspect of anemergency response or emergency dispatch system. For example, a fireresponse system may include a cloud-based emergency dispatch system usedby dispatchers within a public safety answering point (PSAP). In otherembodiments, a dedicated fire response system is used by a fire agency,e.g., a state-wide fire response agency or a parks system. In otherembodiments, the fire response system may include an on-premise dispatchsystem configured for fire response and installed at a dispatch center,such as a PSAP, an emergency communications center (ECC), or a fireagency.

FIG. 2 shows a system diagram illustrating a fire response system and awildfire detected by the fire response system. The system includes a UAV200, a dispatch system 240, and a fire dispatch center 250. Only one UAV200 and one fire dispatch center 250 are shown for simplicity; it shouldbe understood that in a working system environment, there may be more ofeach of these elements.

The UAV 200 is an example of the UAV 100. The UAV 200 has a camera 220,which is an example of or component of the camera system 140. While theUAV 200 shown in FIG. 2 has one camera 220, it should be understood thatthe camera system of the UAV 200 may include multiple cameras, includingdifferent types of cameras. Different cameras may be located atdifferent positions on the UAV 200. The UAV 200 also includes processingcircuitry for controlling the cameras and/or processing the images.While only one UAV 200 is shown in FIG. 2, the fire response system mayinclude a fleet of multiple UAVs 200.

The camera 220 has a field of view 225. In this example the field ofview 225 is focused on a forest that has an active wildfire 230. Thecamera 220 may have a fixed field of view relative to the UAV 200, orthe camera 220 may have a controllable field of view. For example, thecamera 220 may be able to turn in different directions, or may be ableto zoom in or out. If the UAV 200 includes multiple cameras, differentcameras may be located in different positions and/or in differentorientations, providing multiple different fields of view. The camera220 obtains images, such as the potassium spectral line emission imagesdescribed above, that can be used to identify wildfires in the field ofview of the camera 220. In this example, the camera 220 obtains an imagethat includes the wildfire 230 and a portion of the surrounding forest.

The dispatch system 240 is a computer system that assists users inresponding to wildfires. The dispatch system 240 aggregates informationabout wildfires and information about available resources for respondingto wildfires. The dispatch system 240 provides the aggregatedinformation to the fire dispatch center 250 to assist users at the firedispatch center 250 in responding to the wildfire. For example, thedispatch system 240 provides user interfaces that assist a user indispatching resources to a wildfire. While the dispatch system 240 isshown as being separate from the fire dispatch center 250, in someembodiments, the dispatch system 240, or portions of the dispatch system240, are located within the fire dispatch center 250. The dispatchsystem 240 is described further in relation to FIG. 3.

The fire dispatch center 250 receives information from the dispatchsystem 240 and coordinates a wildfire response. The fire dispatch center250 may be, for example, a PSAP, an emergency communications center(ECC), a state-wide or regional fire agency, or another center involvedin assessing and responding to wildfires. The fire dispatch center 250may be configured to receive calls from the public, e.g., 9-1-1 calls,or non-emergency calls reporting wildfires or other events. In someembodiments, the fire dispatch center 250 is a mobile dispatch center.In some embodiments, the fire dispatch center 250 supports remote users,or is entirely remote, e.g., individuals assisting in wildfire responsemay use devices (e.g., computers, tablets, smart phones, etc.) that canconnect to the dispatch system 240 from any location.

As note above, the dispatch system 240 may be in communication withmultiple fire dispatch centers similar to the fire dispatch center 250.Each fire dispatch center may be a subscriber to the dispatch system240, which provides software to the fire dispatch centers. The firedispatch center 250 may include one or more user devices used bydispatchers, telecommunicators, or other users. The devices in the firedispatch center 250 include the hardware and software needed to displayuser interfaces, connect to an IP-based network, and detect user input.Each device may run an application that allows interaction with thedispatch system 240. In one embodiment, the application is a browserthat allows a user to access a web-based service provided by dispatchsystem 240. In another embodiment, the application is a dedicatedapplication that enables interactions with the dispatch system 240.

Each fire dispatch center has an associated geographic region and may beresponsible for responding to wildfires and, in some embodiments,emergency calls and/or other types of alerts or emergencies, within thatgeographic region. The boundaries of the geographic region associatedwith the fire dispatch center may be represented as a geofence or a setof geofences (referred to generally as “geofence” or “geofence data”).Geofence data for each fire dispatch center may be stored in thedispatch system 240, and the dispatch system 240 provides relevantinformation to each fire dispatch center based on the geofence data.

The UAV 200 is in communication with a dispatch system 240 and a firedispatch center 250. The UAV 200 uses the communications interface 170described above to communicate wirelessly, e.g., via radio signals, acell network, or a combination of networks or other communicationsprotocols. In some embodiments, the UAV 200 is in communication witheither the dispatch system 240 or the fire dispatch center 250. In someembodiments, the UAV 200 communicates with the fire dispatch center 250via the dispatch system 240 (e.g., if the UAV 200 has an internetconnection). In some embodiments, the UAV 200 communicates with thedispatch system 240 via the fire dispatch center 250 or one or moreintermediary devices (e.g., if the UAV 200 has a radio connection to adevice used by a remote pilot, which has a radio connection to the firedispatch center 250).

In the example shown in FIG. 2, the camera 220 of the UAV 200 obtains animage of the field of view 225. The UAV 200 (e.g., the processor 150)may process the image to detect the wildfire 230, as described withrespect to FIG. 1. In response to detecting the wildfire 230, the UAV200 transmits data describing the detected wildfire 230 to the dispatchsystem 240. For example, the UAV 200 transmits its current location, apotassium line emission image of the wildfire 230, one or more othercaptured images of the wildfire 230 (e.g., visible light and/or infraredimages), environmental data captured by the environmental sensors 160,and a timestamp. In other examples, the UAV 200 transmits the image andadditional data to the dispatch system 240, and the dispatch system 240analyzes the received image to detect the wildfire 230.

The UAV 200 also transmits data captured by the environmental sensors160 to the dispatch system 240. The UAV 200 may continue to captureadditional images of the wildfire 230 and additional environmental data,and the UAV 200 transmits the additional images and data to the dispatchsystem 240. The UAV 200 may what determine data to send, and/or thefrequency at which to send data, dynamically based on currentconditions. For example, if the UAV 200 has low power, or low bandwidth,the UAV 200 may send less data (e.g., send fewer or no images), or senddata updates less frequently (e.g., transmit data captured by theenvironmental sensors 160 every minute, rather than every second). Ifthe UAV 200 has high power and high bandwidth available, the UAV 200 maysend more data, and/or send data more frequently. In some embodiments,the UAV 200 may dynamically determine what data to send based on whetheror not the UAV 200 detects a wildfire 230, e.g., only sending dataand/or images in response to detecting a wildfire, or sending more dataor more frequent updates after detecting a wildfire.

In some embodiments, the UAV 200 may determine a location of thewildfire and transmit the location of the wildfire to the dispatchsystem 240. For example, the processor 150 may determine the location ofthe wildfire 230 based on the captured image and other data, includingthe current location of the UAV 200 provided by the location sensor 120,the altitude of the UAV 200, the orientation of the UAV 200 and/or theorientation of the camera 220, and the location of the wildfire 230within the captured field of view 225. In some embodiments, the UAV 200transmits the location of the UAV 200 when the image with the wildfire230 was captured as an approximate location of the wildfire 230. The UAV200 transmits the location of the wildfire, e.g., as a latitude andlongitude, to the dispatch system 240.

In some embodiments, the UAV 200 analyzes the image or other data todetermine a size or range of the wildfire 230, or to determine otherproperties of the wildfire 230, and transmits the properties to thedispatch system 240. For example, the processor 150 can determine one ormore boundaries of the wildfire 230 based on the captured images. Theprocessor 150 can identify areas above a threshold brightness in thepotassium spectrum image, an infrared image, or another image orcombination of images, and draw a boundary around the identified areashaving at least the threshold brightness. The processor 150 can estimatethe real-world boundaries (e.g., longitude and latitude) or points alongthe real-world boundaries using the current location of the UAV 200, thealtitude of the UAV 200, the orientation of the UAV 200 and/or theorientation of the camera 220, and the location of the boundaries withinthe captured field of view 225. Some or all of the image processing,including the location determination and boundary detection, mayalternatively be performed by the dispatch system 240 or anotherexternal system based on images and other data received from the UAV200.

The dispatch system 240 receives the data transmitted by the UAV 200.The dispatch system 240 generates user interfaces based on the receiveddata and provides the user interfaces to users at the fire dispatchcenter 250. For example, the dispatch system 240 selects one or moreimages to provide to a user at the fire dispatch center 250. Thedispatch system 240 may also select environmental data captured by theenvironmental sensors 160 and provide the environmental data in the userinterface. The dispatch system 240 may also perform further processingon data received from the UAV 200 and provide the processed data in theuser interface. If multiple UAVs 200 are deployed to monitor aparticular wildfire, the dispatch system 240 combines data received fromthe multiple UAVs 200, e.g., providing multiple views of the wildfirefrom different UAV cameras, generating a combined image of the wildfire,or generating a summary of environmental data from multiple UAVs.

Example Dispatch System

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the dispatch system 240 according to someembodiments of the present disclosure. The dispatch system 240 includesa data ingestion module 310, a data store 320, a real-time data engine330, a fire detection engine 340, a fire prediction engine 350, a fireresponse module 360, a web server 370, and a UAV interface 380. Inalternative configurations, different and/or additional components maybe included in the dispatch system 240. For example, in someembodiments, the dispatch system 240 is a computer-aided dispatch (CAD)system that provides information about emergencies (e.g., emergencycalls, which include calls relating to wildfires) and first responders(e.g., fire department resources, as well as medical and/or policeresponders) to a dispatcher, and enables the dispatcher to connect tofirst responders and dispatch first responders to specific locations.Additionally, functionality described in conjunction with one or more ofthe components shown in FIG. 2 may be distributed among the componentsin a different manner than described in conjunction with FIG. 2 in someembodiments. In some embodiments, the dispatch system 240 is acloud-based dispatch system that is distributed across one or moreremote servers. In other embodiments, the dispatch system 240 is anon-premise dispatch system installed locally at a fire dispatch center250.

The data ingestion module 310 receives and processes call data relatedto emergency calls, including calls reporting wildfires. Call data mayinclude device information, caller information, location information, orother information relating to the emergency call or caller. For example,if the fire dispatch center 250 is a PSAP, call data received at thePSAP may be transmitted to the dispatch system 240, e.g., via anemergency data gateway (EDG) device. The use of an EDG device totransfer call data from a PSAP to a cloud-based emergency system isdescribed in U.S. Pat. No. 10,264,122, incorporated by reference in itsentirety. The data ingestion module 310 may receive and process calldata from other sources, such as one or more multi-tenant emergency calldata relays, which may be used in combination with one or more EDGdevices. In some embodiments, the EDG devices are configured to transmitdata to the dispatch system 240 in a common format. In otherembodiments, the data ingestion module 310 is configured to parse andreformat data received from PSAPs into a common format used by thedispatch system 240. The data ingestion module 310 may determine whethereach data message describes a new call or an existing call andassociates call data related to the same call.

The data ingestion module 310 may receive and process data from othersources, such as supplemental call data sources. For example,supplemental call data sources may provide various types of informationrelating to an emergency call, such as location information; contactinformation, such as a phone number; other data that can be used tocorrelate the supplemental data to an emergency call, such as phonenumber, name, time stamp, location, etc.; language information (e.g., adevice language of the mobile device placing the emergency call); healthinformation; real-time video; images; etc. The data ingestion module 310may parse supplemental data messages and reformat the parsedsupplemental data into a common format used by the dispatch system 240.The data ingestion module 310 may determine whether each supplementaldata message is related to a prior supplemental data message (e.g., anupdated location, additional camera footage, etc.) or not, and mayassociate related supplemental data to streamline processing offollow-on data.

The data ingestion module 310 may also obtain data specific to wildfiredetection and prediction. For example, the data ingestion module 310 mayretrieve data describing known wildfires in a region, data describingweather conditions and/or wildfire risk in a region, and/or datadescribing locations and timing for permitted burns.

The data ingestion module 310 may have a respective data interface foreach data source or type of data source, e.g., based on the data formator communication protocol used by the supplemental data source. In someembodiments, each data source has a respective corresponding dataingestion module, e.g., one data ingestion module for call data, onedata ingestion module for each supplemental call data source, one dataingestion module for wildfire-related data, etc.

In some embodiments, the data ingestion module 310 further receives andprocesses data received from UAVs, e.g., the UAVs 100 and 200 describedabove. In other embodiments, data from the UAVs is received the UAVinterface 380, described further below.

The data store 320 provides storage of the data from UAVs, data fromcalls, supplemental data, and/or other data received by the dispatchsystem 240. The data store 320 may also store data generated by othermodules of the dispatch system 240. For example, the data store 320 maystore data entered by users of the dispatch system 240, e.g., data aboutwildfires entered by users at the fire dispatch center 250 and passed tothe dispatch system 240 via the web server 370. The data store 320 mayalso store data about various dispatch centers, including geofence datadescribed with respect to FIG. 2.

The data store 320 may be encrypted. In some embodiments, the dispatchsystem 240 includes a first data store for short-term storage (e.g., forongoing emergency calls), and a second, longer-term data store accessedto perform periodic analyses. In some embodiments, the dispatch system240 includes different data stores for different types of data, e.g., afirst data store for UAV data, a second data store for call data, athird data store for supplemental data, a fourth data store forgeofences, etc. The data store 320 may include one or more of a BinaryLarge OBject (BLOB) storage service, data warehouse, key-value database,document database, relational database, or any other type of datastorage.

The real-time data engine 330 processes data related to emergency calls,including data received from the data ingestion module 310 and datareceived from the web server 370 (e.g., inputs from a telecommunicatorat the fire dispatch center 250). More specifically, the real-time dataengine 330 performs real-time processing of data during an emergencycall. The real-time data engine 330 parses incoming data messages,including call data and supplemental data from the data ingestion module310. The real-time data engine 330 may extract or identify atelecommunicator position, location information, a caller phone number,caller name, and other available information from data messages. Thereal-time data engine 330 may retrieve additional data about the call orthe caller as available based on the extracted data.

The real-time data engine 330 also receives data messages from the webserver 370 in response to inputs received at the web server 370 from thetelecommunicators. Telecommunicators can take various actions within theapplication provided by the dispatch system 240 in the course ofresponding to an emergency call. Data describing these actions arepassed from the web server 370 to the real-time data engine 330 forprocessing. For example, the web server 370 may receive an inputindicating that caller is reporting a wildfire or, generally, a fire ina particular location. This report of a potential wildfire is processedby the real-time data engine 330, which may associate the fire reportwith additional call data or supplemental data. For example, thereal-time data engine 330 associates a precise caller location receivedat the data ingestion module 310 from a call data or supplemental datasource with the potential wildfire reported by the caller and input bythe telecommunicator.

The fire detection engine 340 performs real-time processing of wildfiredata, including data received from UAVs 100 and 200. The fire detectionengine 340 may analyze the incoming data to determine if a wildfire isor may be present in the environment of the UAV. If the fire detectionengine 340 detects a wildfire based on UAV data, the fire detectionengine 340 may retrieve additional data about the wildfire fromadditional data sources. For example, the fire detection engine 340 maycorrelate the detected wildfire to calls received about the wildfire bycomparing on the location of the detected wildfire to a caller location.If the wildfire matches a current or previously-received call, the firedetection engine 340 associates the call data and information providedby the caller and stored in the data store 320 with the detectedwildfire. The fire detection engine 340 may further aggregate otherinformation related to the wildfire, such as the weather informationdescribed above. The fire detection engine 340 may also aggregate datafrom multiple UAVs detecting the same wildfire or fire system. Forexample, the fire detection engine 340 may generate a composite image ofa wildfire based on images received from multiple UAVs, and/or based onimages received from multiple cameras on a single UAV.

The fire detection engine 340 provides data that may be used fordispatching resources to the wildfire to the web server 370. Forexample, upon detecting a new fire (e.g., a fire not previously known tothe dispatch system 240, either from the UAVs, emergency callers,wildfire databases, or other data sources), the fire detection engine340 generates a wildfire alert and provides the alert to the web server370. The fire detection engine 340 may compare the location of thewildfire to a permitted burns database and omit a wildfire from alertingif the detected wildfire is a permitted burn, thus mitigating falsepositive alarms. If the fire detection engine 340 receives additional orupdated information about a wildfire, the fire detection engine 340 mayupdate a record related to the wildfire in the data store 320 based onthe additional or updated information. The web server 370 may access thedata store 320 to provide up-to-date wildfire information in userinterfaces provided to fire resource dispatchers.

The fire prediction engine 350 calculates spread predictions based onwildfire data collected by the UAVs 100 and 200 and/or otherinformation. For example, the fire prediction engine 350 accesses thecurrent location and boundaries of the wildfire as determined from thecaptured images as described with respect to FIG. 2, and additional datacaptured by other environmental sensors 160 of the UAV 100. In someembodiments, the fire prediction engine 350 performs fire spreadmodeling based on the Rothermel fire spread model. The fire predictionengine 350 may access and incorporate additional data, including thetopography of the area (slope and aspect), data describing previouswildfire burns in the area, data describing fuel particle properties forthe area (e.g., heat content, mineral content, particle density), andfuel array arrangements (e.g., fuel load, surface-area-to-volume ratio(SAV), the average depth of fuel bed, and dead fuel moisture ofextinction).

Successful fire suppression strategies, reliable community warnings, andeffective evacuation planning all hinge on the precision and timelinessof wildfire information and predictions, and generating fire predictionsbased on real-time data from UAVs 100 or 200 can improve wildfireresponse. The fire prediction engine 350 may automatically perform thefire spread modeling in response to data identifying a new wildfire,e.g., data received from a UAV 100 identifying the wildfire 230.Further, the fire prediction engine 350 may automatically update thefire spread modeling in response to additional data from UAVs and/orother sources.

In some embodiments, a fire response module 360 receives data describinga wildfire and determines a response plan based on the data. Forexample, the fire response module 360 receives data describing adetected wildfire from the fire detection engine 340 and/or dataingestion module 310. The fire response module 360 may also receive afire spread prediction generated by the fire prediction engine 350.Based on the received information, the fire response module 360determines a response to the wildfire. The response plan may includenumbers and types of apparatuses to dispatch (e.g., engines, ladders,air tankers, helicopters, etc.), numbers and types of responders (e.g.,ground firefighters, smokejumpers, pilots), recommended actions byresponders (e.g., ground and/or aerial firefighting, creating firelines), location of the response, etc. The fire response module 360 mayoutput the response plan to the web server 370, which provides theresponse plan to a dispatcher so that a dispatcher may review theresponse plan and dispatch resources accordingly. The fire responsemodule 360 may include various rules for determining the response plan.The fire response module 360 may also receive data describing availableresources, including locations and drive times to the wildfire, toautomatically determine resources to assign to the wildfire. Forexample, the fire response module 340 may compare the received wildfiredata (e.g., the size of the fire, the speed at which the fire isspreading, etc.) to various thresholds to determine a response plan,e.g., the number of apparatuses to assign to the wildfire.

The web server 370 provides user interfaces for assisting in wildfireresponse and receives input entered via the user interfaces. The webserver 370 may provide a mapping interface, a call-taking interface, anda dispatch interface to devices at fire dispatch centers. The web server370 provides relevant information to different fire dispatch centers. Inparticular, the dispatch system 240 may provide an emergency responseapplication to multiple fire dispatch centers 250 (e.g., if the dispatchsystem is a cloud-based dispatch system used by multiple fire dispatchcenters), and when the fire detection engine 340 generates a wildfirealert, the web server 370 can identify appropriate agency or division(e.g., the ECC assigned to the location of the fire) based on thelocation of the wildfire and the coverage area of the agencies, e.g., asindicated by the geofence data described above. For example, the webserver 370 compares the location of the fire, or the boundaries of thefire, to operational coverage polygons associated with ECCs, and the webserver 370 routes the alert to the appropriate ECC for processing andresponse. The web server 370 or another component of the dispatch system240 may compare the location of the wildfire to a permitted burnsdatabase, and omit a wildfire from alerting if the detected wildfire isa permitted burn, thus mitigating false positive alarms.

In some embodiments, in addition to providing an alert to the firedispatch center controlling the area in which the wildfire was detected,the web server 370 automatically provides alerts to all high-riskoperational areas detected within a spread simulation path generated bythe fire prediction engine 350. In some embodiments, the web server 370,or a separate alerting server, may provide notifications to otherparties, such as public alerting systems. For example, an alertingserver may retrieve data from population census databases and plotevacuation routes for the public. The alerting server may integrate withthe IPAWS (Integrated Public Alert and Warning System), WEA (WirelessEmergency Alerts) system, or other public alerting systems to providemass public notifications of wildfire notifications, evacuation routes,or other information.

The UAV interface 380 communicates with UAVs, such as UAV 100 and UAV200. The UAV interface 380 may receive data transmitted by UAVs, such asimages obtained from the camera system 140 and/or environmental dataobtained by the environmental sensors 160. The UAV interface 380 passesthe received data to other systems, such as the data store 320, firedetection engine 340, fire prediction engine 350, and/or fire responsemodule 360 for processing or storage.

The UAV interface 380 may also determine instructions for UAVs andtransmit the instructions to the UAVs. For example, the real-time dataengine 330 receives a report of a newly-reported wildfire and passesdata describing the wildfire, such as the location and time ofdetection, to the UAV interface 380. The UAV interface 380 may selectone or more UAVs, e.g., UAV 200, to dispatch to the wildfire to gathermore information. The UAV interface 380 may transmit instructions to theUAV 200, such as a flight path to the location of the wildfire.Alternatively, the UAV interface 380 may provide a suggested UAV flightplan for a dispatcher to review, and the web server 370 provides the UAVflight plan to a telecommunicator at the fire dispatch center 250 forreview or approval, or for the telecommunicator to carry out. Forexample, the telecommunicator may instruct an operator to drive one ormore UAVs to a staging location near the wildfire, and to deploy theUAV(s) from the staging location to perform wildfire surveillance.

In some embodiments, the UAV interface 380 interacts with and directsUAVs during their surveillance. For example, the UAV interface 380 maycoordinate the movements and flight paths of a set of UAVs while theyare monitoring a particular area, e.g., by moving one UAV closer toanother UAV that has observed a wildfire. In some embodiments, the UAVinterface 380 coordinates UAVs for routine surveillance, e.g.,instructing UAVs to perform scheduled monitoring flights. In someembodiments, the UAV interface 380 instructs UAVs to return to a basestation, e.g., when the UAV interface 380 detects an error, or when aUAV is low on fuel.

Method for Detecting and Responding to Wildfires

FIG. 4 shows an example method for detecting and responding to awildfire. A fire surveillance system (e.g., the dispatch system 240)receives 410 a location of a potential wildfire. For example, thelocation may be a cell phone location of a mobile caller reporting awildfire. As discussed above, the PSAP may receive call data including acaller location, and the PSAP (e.g., an EDG device located at the PSAP)transmits the caller location to the data ingestion module 310.Alternatively, the data ingestion module 310 may receive the cell phonelocation from a supplemental data provider, e.g., a mobile phoneprovider that accesses the cell phone's location and transmits it to thedispatch system 240. As still another example, a dispatcher at the firedispatch center 250 receives location information from the caller andenters the location into a user interface, which transmits the locationto the dispatch system 240. In some embodiments, rather than using acaller location, the dispatch system 240 receives data describing aregion having a high risk of wildfires based on environmentalconditions. In one example, the location may be a region that isroutinely surveilled by UAVs, e.g., a remote location that is scheduledfor daily or weekly monitoring during wildfire season.

The fire surveillance system (e.g., the dispatch system 240 or the firedispatch center 250) dispatches 420 a UAV along a flight path thatincludes the location of the potential wildfire. The fire surveillancesystem may automatically dispatch the UAV, e.g., in response to a reportof a wildfire, in response to detecting an elevated wildfire risk, oraccording to a flight schedule. In other examples, an operator at thefire dispatch center 250 instructs dispatching of the UAV. The dispatchsystem 240 or another system may automatically determine the flight pathfor the UAV based on the location or region for surveillance.

The UAV captures 430 a spectral line emission image and a referenceimage. As discussed above, the UAV may capture a potassium emissionimage and a reference image. The UAV (e.g., the processor 150), or afire surveillance system (e.g., the dispatch system 240) receiving theimages, compares 440 the spectral line emission image and the referenceimage to identify a wildfire event.

In response to identifying a wildfire event, the fire surveillancesystem determines 450 a fire response strategy. For example, the fireresponse module 340 determines a strategy that includes dispatching atleast one emergency vehicle to the location of the wildfire event. Inaddition to the identified location of the wildfire, the fire responsemodule 340 may determine the fire response strategy based on real-timedata describing available resources for responding to a wildfire, datadescribing weather conditions in the area of the wildfire (e.g., fromenvironmental sensors 160 or other sources), a predicted fire spread(e.g., provided by the fire prediction engine 350), and other data. Thefire surveillance system (e.g., the dispatch system 240) and/or adispatcher dispatches 460 resources according to the fire responsestrategy. For example, the web server 370 of the dispatch system 240provides the fire response strategy via a user interface to a dispatcheror fire response coordinator, who may accept or modify the fire responsestrategy.

Method for Dispatching a UAV for Wildfire Surveillance

FIG. 5 shows an example method for dispatching a UAV configured forwildfire surveillance. A dispatch system (e.g., the dispatch system 240)instructs 510 a UAV (e.g. UAV 200) to fly to a location for wildfiremonitoring. For example, the dispatch system 240 instructs the UAV 200to fly to a specific latitude and longitude, a specific set of multiplelatitude/longitude combinations along a flight path, a specific latitudeand longitude and a radius around that point, or a polygon bounding aparticular geographic region (e.g., a rectangular region, or theboundary of a park). In some embodiments, the dispatch system 240provides instructions to a fleet of multiple UAVs, e.g., instructionsfor each UAV to fly to a different portion of a geographic region, or tosurveil a specific portion of a geographic region.

The dispatch system receives 520 real-time data captured by the UAV 200.For example, the UAV 200 transmits all data captured by its sensors inreal time over a wireless connection (e.g., a cellular connection) tothe dispatch system 240. As another example, the UAV 200 filters thedata and transmits a portion of the collected data, e.g., the UAV 200transmits data in response to determining that the data may beindicative of a wildfire. In another example, in response to detecting apotential wildfire, the UAV 200 transmits more data than if the UAV doesnot detect a potential wildfire (e.g., the UAV 200 transmits images andenvironmental data in response to detecting an emission event, andtransmits only environmental data when an emission event is notdetected). The UAV 200 may transmit data with at one frequency (e.g.,sending a new image and environmental sensor readings every second) inresponse to detecting a potential wildfire, and transmit data with adifferent frequency (e.g., sending data at a default rate of everyminute) if the UAV does not detect a potential wildfire.

In some embodiments, the UAV 200 processes the collected data andtransmits processed real-time data to the dispatch system 240. In someembodiments, the UAV 200 may cache the real-time data for a period oftime before transmitting it to the dispatch system 240. For example, ifthe UAV 200 travels out of range of a wireless connection point forconnecting to a network (e.g., out of a cell tower's range), the UAV 200temporarily caches data until it reconnects to the network and cantransmit the cached data to the dispatch system 240. The UAV 200 mayselect data to send based on network conditions, e.g., sending allcaptured data when its wireless network connection is strong, andsending a filtered subset of the captured data when its wireless networkconnection is weak. In some embodiments, if multiple UAVs are dispatchedto a geographic area, the UAVs may communicate with each other, e.g., byforming a mesh network. If one UAV of a set of UAVs has a networkconnection, the other UAVs may transmit data to the UAV with the networkconnection, which forwards the data to the dispatch system 240.

In some embodiments, the dispatch system updates 530 its instructions tothe UAV based on the real-time data received from the UAV and/or othervehicles in the fleet. For example, if the real-time data indicates thatthe UAV 200 has detected a wildfire (e.g., the UAV 200 has detected anemission event), the dispatch system 240 may instruct the UAV 200 tocollect more data from its current location or a region near the currentlocation. Alternatively, if the real-time data indicates that the UAV200 is not near a wildfire (e.g., no emission event is detected), thedispatch system 240 may instruct the UAV 200 to fly to a differentlocation. As another example, if a first UAV in a fleet detects awildfire, the dispatch system 240 may instruct a second UAV to fly tothe location of the first UAV, or to a location near the first UAV, andcapture additional data from the region of the wildfire. A humanoperator, e.g., a dispatcher at the fire dispatch center 250, may inputinstructions for the UAV 200 (e.g., navigation instructions, orinstructions to capture and transmit particular types of data), and thedispatch system 240 transmits the instructions to the UAV 200.

If multiple UAVs are in communication with each other, as describedabove, if one UAV detects a potential wildfire, it may alert the otherUAVs within range. In some embodiments, a navigation system 130 of asecond UAV may instruct its propulsion system 110 to fly towards the UAVthat detected the wildfire, so that the second UAV can captureadditional data about the detected wildfire.

The dispatch system instructs 540 the UAV to return from its monitoringroute. For example, the flight path instructions provided to the UAV 200include instructions to return to the UAV's home base at a particulartime, after completing a flight path, or in response to certainconditions, such as low fuel. In some embodiments, the dispatch system240 determines in real time whether to have the UAV 200 to return, andthe dispatch system 240 transmits an instruction over the wirelessnetwork to the UAV 200 to return. The instructions may instruct the UAV200 to return to a home base (e.g., the fire dispatch center 250, or astorage facility for UAVs), to a different home base (e.g., if an agencyoperates multiple dispatch centers or other bases for UAVs), or to amobile base (e.g., if a UAV was driven to launch point, the UAV mayreturn to the launch point). The dispatch system 240 may instruct theUAV 200 to return after the UAV 200 has completed a monitoring route orpath.

The dispatch system 240 may receive data describing the conditions ofthe UAV 200 and determine to instruct the UAV 200 to return based on thecurrent conditions. The conditions may include, for example, the currentbattery level of the UAV 200 or whether the UAV 200 has been damaged orneeds maintenance, e.g., if the UAV 200 has experienced fire damage orsmoke damage, or if the camera system 140 or any environmental sensors160 are malfunctioning. Based on the condition information, the dispatchsystem 240 instructs the UAV 200 to fly back to a home base forrecharging, or to a maintenance facility (if different from the homebase) for maintenance, based on the UAV condition data.

Method for Detecting a New Wildfire

FIG. 6 shows an example method for detecting a new wildfire according tosome embodiments of the present invention. A dispatch system (e.g., theUAV interface 380 of the dispatch system 240) dispatches 610 a UAV(e.g., UAV 200) for wildfire monitoring. For example, as describedabove, the dispatch system 240 may dispatch a UAV to a particularlocation, on a particular flight path, on a scheduled monitoring route,etc. The dispatch system (e.g., the UAV interface 380) receives 620 datacaptured by the UAV, such as data captured by the camera system 140 andenvironmental sensors 160, as described above.

If the data captured by the UAV indicates the presence of a wildfire,the dispatch system (e.g., the fire detection engine 340) compares thelocation of the detected wildfire to locations of known wildfires. Thefire detection engine 340 may detect a wildfire based on data receivedfrom the UAV, or the UAV may detect an emission event and alert thedispatch system 240 to the detected emission event, as described above.The dispatch system 240 associates a location with the detectedwildfire, e.g., a location determined based on one or more capturedimages of the wildfire, or the location of the UAV at the time theimages were captured. The fire detection engine 340 compares thislocation to one or more databases describing known wildfires. Forexample, the fire detection engine 340 stores data describing wildfiresdetected by UAVs and/or other sources in the data store 320, and thefire detection engine 340 compares the location of the newly detectedwildfire to the data in the data store 320. As another example, the firedetection engine 340 compares the location of the newly detectedwildfire to one or more external or imported databases, e.g., a databaseof permitted burns. The fire detection engine 340 may search for knownfires in a given range of the detected wildfire (e.g., within 100meters) to account for location errors or wildfire movement.

If the fire detection engine 340 determines that the wildfire detectedby the UAV was not previously known, the dispatch system (e.g., the webserver 370) provides an alert regarding the wildfire. For example, theweb server 370 displays an alert in a user interface provided to atelecommunicator at the fire dispatch center 250, and thetelecommunicator may dispatch firefighting resources in response toreceiving an alert. The alert may include the location of the wildfire.The alert may further include, or the telecommunicator may be able toview, additional information about the wildfire captured by the UAV,such as images of the wildfire and data collected by the environmentalsensors 160. The fire detection engine 340 stores data describing thewildfire, including its location, in the data store 320.

Other Implementation Notes, Variations, and Applications

It is to be understood that not necessarily all objects or advantagesmay be achieved in accordance with any particular embodiment describedherein. Thus, for example, those skilled in the art will recognize thatcertain embodiments may be configured to operate in a manner thatachieves or optimizes one advantage or group of advantages as taughtherein without necessarily achieving other objects or advantages as maybe taught or suggested herein.

It should be appreciated that the electrical circuits of theaccompanying drawings and its teachings are readily scalable and canaccommodate a large number of components, as well as morecomplicated/sophisticated arrangements and configurations. Accordingly,the examples provided should not limit the scope or inhibit the broadteachings of the electrical circuits as potentially applied to a myriadof other architectures.

Numerous other changes, substitutions, variations, alterations, andmodifications may be ascertained to one skilled in the art and it isintended that the present disclosure encompass all such changes,substitutions, variations, alterations, and modifications as fallingwithin the scope of the appended claims. Note that all optional featuresof any of the devices and systems described herein may also beimplemented with respect to the methods or processes described hereinand specifics in the examples may be used anywhere in one or moreembodiments.

What is claimed is:
 1. A dispatch system comprising: an unmanned aerialvehicle (UAV) interface to: transmit, to a UAV, an instruction tonavigate to a location of a potential wildfire; and receive, from theUAV, data captured by at least one sensor of the UAV; a fire detectionengine to process the data to identify the presence of a wildfire; and aweb server configured to provide a user interface comprising an alertregarding the wildfire, the alert comprising a location of the wildfire.2. The dispatch system of claim 1, wherein the data captured by the atleast one sensor comprises a spectral line emission image comprising atleast a portion of the location of the potential wildfire.
 3. Thedispatch system of claim 2, wherein the data further comprises areference image comprising light in a band of wavelengths outside a bandof wavelengths of the spectral line emission image, the fire detectionengine to compare the reference image to the spectral line emissionimage to identify the presence of a wildfire.
 4. The dispatch system ofclaim 1, further comprising a fire prediction engine to calculate aspread prediction based the data captured by the at least one sensor ofthe UAV.
 5. The dispatch system of claim 1, further comprising a fireresponse module to generate a response plan in response to the firedetection engine identifying the presence of the wildfire, the responseplan comprising at least one of a number of apparatuses to dispatch, atype of apparatus to dispatch, and a fire mitigation action.
 6. Thedispatch system of claim 1, wherein the UAV interface is furtherconfigured to instruct the UAV to return to a base station.
 7. Thedispatch system of claim 1, wherein the UAV interface is furtherconfigured to instruct a second UAV in a fleet of UAVs to navigate to asecond location and receive, from the second UAV, second data capturedby at least one sensor of the second UAV.
 8. The dispatch system ofclaim 7, wherein the fire detection engine is configured to process thedata from the UAV with the second data from the second UAV to identifythe presence of a wildfire.
 9. The dispatch system of claim 1, furthercomprising a data ingestion module to receive a location of an emergencycaller reporting a wildfire, wherein the location of the potentialwildfire is the location of the emergency caller.
 10. A method fordetecting wildfires comprising: dispatching an unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV) along a flight path, the UAV comprising a camera configured tocapture images of emissions characteristic of wildfires; receiving, fromthe UAV, data describing an emission event and an associated location ofthe emission event; comparing the location of the emission event tolocations of known wildfires; and in response to determining that thelocation of the emission event does not correspond to a location of aknown wildfire, providing an alert comprising the location of theemission event.
 11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:determining, based on the data describing the emission event and theassociated location, a fire response strategy comprising dispatching atleast one fire response apparatus to the associated location; andproviding the fire response strategy to a dispatcher.
 12. The method ofclaim 11, wherein determining the fire response strategy is furtherbased on real-time data describing available resources for responding toa wildfire.
 13. The method of claim 11, wherein determining the fireresponse strategy is further based on data describing weather conditionsin a region comprising the associated location.
 14. The method of claim10, wherein the data describing the emission event comprises an imagecaptured by the UAV, and the method further comprises processing theimage to identify a spectral line emission event.
 15. A method fordetecting wildfires comprising: receiving data describing a phone callreporting a potential wildfire, the data comprising a caller location;assigning, based on the caller location, a flight path to an unmannedaerial vehicle (UAV), the UAV comprising a camera configured to captureimages of spectral line emissions characteristic of wildfires; anddetermining, based on images of spectral line emissions captured by theUAV and location data associated with the images, that a particularlocation imaged by the camera has an active wildfire.
 16. The method ofclaim 15, further comprising dispatching a fire response apparatus tothe particular location having the active wildfire.
 17. The method ofclaim 16, further comprising selecting at least one apparatus forresponding to the active wildfire, and automatically sendinginstructions to dispatch the at least one apparatus.
 18. The method ofclaim 15, wherein the UAV is one of a fleet of UAVs, the method furthercomprising instructing a second UAV in the fleet of UAVs to navigate toa second location, and receiving, from the second UAV, additional imagesof spectral line emissions.
 19. The method of claim 15, wherein the datacomprises a caller location of a mobile phone.
 20. The method of claim15, further comprising instructing the UAV to return to a location of aUAV base station.